Employers have a duty of care to ensure that their employees are safe. Testing and tagging of electrical equipment forms part of an employer's responsibility to protect employees and visitors to work sites from electrical hazards arising from defective or damaged equipment.
In many countries, including Australia, electrical articles used in a work place are required to be regularly inspected, tested and maintained by a competent person to ensure they are safe for use. Electrical installations and articles at a work place that are found to be unsafe should be disconnected from the electricity supply and either repaired, replaced or be permanently removed from use.
There will often be requirements that an employer ensure that a record is kept of all inspections and tests made and maintenance carried out on electrical articles and installations.
In Australia, the following information may be recorded:    (a) the name of the person who made the inspection or carried out the test or maintenance;    (b) the date on which the inspection was made or the test or maintenance was carried out;    (c) the results or outcome of the inspection, test or maintenance; and    (d) the date by which the next inspection and test must be carried out.
Equipment that has been inspected should be marked with a tag that displays the following information:    1. name of person/company who performed the test;    2. test date; and    3. expiry date by which further testing must be performed.
The information is written or printed onto a tag, which is attached to the equipment. Current implementations of the testing and tagging system provide limited personal protection and record keeping. Expired leads may still be used mistakenly. In some instances, tags may go unnoticed and equipment such as electrical leads may be used for long periods of time without being re-tested. Equipment such as electrical leads may be misplaced or destroyed without tracking records being updated.
It is desirable, and sometimes a statutory requirement, that records of maintenance should be kept throughout the working life of a piece of equipment. Such records may provide a useful management tool for reviewing the frequency of inspection and test actions, and ensuring that these actions have been carried out.
There is an ongoing need for more efficient and effective ways of marking inspected equipment in order to limit the use of equipment that is not approved for operation.